Denmark’s two largest supermarket chains, COOP and Dansk Supermarked, removed Diet Coke Plus from their shelves this week, arguing that the beverage label contains misleading health claims. “It was a mistake that we started selling them to begin with, because we’re against vitamin-enriched products,” COOP executive Mogens Werge said.

Coca-Cola’s Denmark affiliates will defend the drink this week, in an effort to encourage the two chains to restock the product. Mikael Bonde-Nielsen, Coca-Cola’s Copenhagen-based spokesman, told Bloomberg, “The product has been approved by Danish food and drink authorities, so there’s no question it’s a legal product we’re selling.”

Diet Coke Plus became available in Denmark on Jan. 5 under the name Coca-Cola Light Plus. The Diet Coke Web site claims that Diet Coke Plus provides “essential nutrients,” including “15% of your RDI for niacin and vitamins B6 and B12, and 10% for zinc and magnesium.”

Coca-Cola faces an uphill battle against Denmark’s longstanding aversion to vitamin-enriched products. In 2001, the European Court of Justice threatened Denmark with legal action for its continued refusal to allow vitamin-enriched foods into the country’s supermarkets unless there was a clear “nutritional need.” The European Commission alleged that Denmark’s restrictions created “unjustified trade barriers” within the international market.

According to Brandweek, the letter states that Diet Coke Plus is “misbranded” because it “bears the nutrient content claim ‘plus’ but does not comply with the regulations governing the use of this claim.” In addition, “the FDA does not consider it appropriate to fortify snack foods such as carbonated beverages.”

Philpott also asserts that adding nutrients to Coke will not improve the quality of the product: “systematically stripping nutrition out of food, and then adding it later in isolated form, is a bust,” Philpott writes, citing the research of food activist Michael Pollen, who advocates that artificially added vitamins and nutrients do not have the same benefits as when they occur naturally in whole foods.